Bloomberg Businessweek MBA Rankings

45% on surveys of corporate recruiters based on their experiences with a school's graduates

10% on "intellectual capital," which tallies points for appearance of the faculty's research in 18 specific publications

Detailed MBA Rankings Methodology

Bloomberg Businessweek surveys MBA graduates and corporate recruiters, and measures faculty publications.Every two years, Bloomberg Businessweek asks the graduating MBA classes at schools to complete an online survey. MBAs evaluate "everything from the quality of teaching to the efficacy of career placement offices" using a scale of 1-10 for each question. Responses from the graduating class account for half of a school's student satisfaction score. The other half of the MBA program rankings comes from the responses of the two previous BloombergBusinessweek rankings classes, which carry a weight of 25% each. The resulting student satisfaction score receives a 45% weighting in the overall MBA program ranking.

Bloomberg Businessweek also asks corporate recruiters who hire MBAs to complete an online MBA ratings survey. Recruiters rate their top 20 schools based on their company's experiences with a school's graduates. Each school's total score is divided by the number of responding companies that recruit from that school. Bloomberg Businessweek reported that there tend to be greater differences among schools in the corporate survey, so recruiter opinion can have a greater impact on the overall ranking. It combines the three most recent polls, as it does with the student surveys. The recruiter survey counts for 50% of the recruiter score, while the other half comes from the responses of the two previous recruiter surveys, which carry a weight of 25% each. Combined, the three recruiter polls accounted for 45% of the final ranking.

Finally, BloombergBusinessweek calculates each school's "intellectual capital" rating by tallying faculty's publications in 20 publications, and adds points if The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal or Bloomberg Businessweek reviewed a professor's book. Tallies are adjusted for faculty size. The intellectual capital score accounts for 10% of a school's MBA ranking.

Forbes MBA Rankings

Forbes ranks return on investment of MBA programs based on:

Average 5-year increase in compensation compared to pre-MBA salary for each school's graduates

Cost of each MBA program, including estimated foregone salary

Detailed MBA Rankings Methodology

Forbes ranks MBA programs based on return on investment (ROI) achieved by graduates. Forbes surveys alumni at over 100 schools and compares their earnings in their first five years out of business school to their opportunity costs (two years of forgone compensation, tuition and required fees). Forbes then:

Adjusts for cost of living expenses

Discounts earnings gains using a rate tied to money market yields

Discounts tuition to account for students who pay in-state rates and for the non-repayable financial aid from schools

Accounts for required fees that students must pay on top of tuition

U.S. News & World Report MBA Rankings

U.S. News & World Report bases its MBA rankings on:

25% on ratings by business school deans and MBA program directors

15% on ratings by recruiters of the schools at which they recruit

35% on placement statistics provided by each school

25% on school-reported "selectivity", the percentage of applicants the school accepts for admission

Surveys of deans and MBA program directors who rate programs (25% of the overall ranking)

Corporate recruiters rate the programs where they recruit (15% of the overall MBA ranking)

"Statistical indicators," which include placement success (35% of the overall MBA ranking) and student selectivity (25% of the overall MBA ranking)

Specialty MBA rankings are based solely on ratings by deans and program directors, who can list up to 10 MBA programs for excellence in each area listed. The 10 schools receiving the most votes appear in the ranking.